1940-11-25 — Page 7

Well #

THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 25, 1940.

CHINA MAIL War-Torn Europe's

WINDSOR HOUSE

BARTER AT GUN- POINT

GHOSTLIKE, the shadows aff

Europe's mysteriously missing former leaders slinit across

stage of foreign events;

the

All but forgotten names that

were headlines and pages, of type:

a few months ago to-day need

Missing

Men...

The spectacular aspects explanatory paragraphs to place married by proxy, during his im- terms of a peace offer supposed to with von Fritsch become known. of the flow of visitors to them in the recollection of world prisonment to the former Coun- be under consideration by German Von Fritsch was reduced to a mere Hitler give rise to much readers.

tess. Vera Bugger von: Babenhau-authorities.

Colonel in the invading German -Names which dominated Chansen.

The Nazis claimed to have ob- army on the Vistula. speculation about the collories in the tense days of The report of his proxy marri-tained "confessions" from Stevens

Munich carry not an atom of purpose of the Germanpower to-day.

age to the Countess, one of the and Best admitting sabotage plots it that von Fritsch, was killed in The official German report has most beautiful women in Vienna, against German shipping. activity. Doubtless the Many of the men who helped fixed June 3, 1938, as the date,

action by the Poles. The un- Various reports seeping out of official non-German version is that Nazis have in mind, some no longer in the driver's seat as Church in downtown Vienna as listed times set. for trial of the two Gestapo and then shot in the back. build Europe's war machines are the private chapel of the Dominion Germany since November have von Fritsch was kidnapped by the thing more than mere a new war surges onward. What the place and the Chancellor's secret agents, before the dread In recent weelts have come re- control of the Balkans. has become of them?

brother. Dr. Arthur Schuschalgg Peoples' Court at Berlin, but each ports that von Blomberg has been Reports have reached America as his proxy. They are taking roads that a snowy-haired apathetic old

time there has been, a postpone-imprisoned in a Bavarian fortress. Whether the "Frau, Schusch-ment. Even the place of their pre- for months. There is also a re- that lead toward the oil nan wanders "in limited liberty" nigg" listed as having been allow sent confinement is secret.

over an estate over Nordlingen, ed to visit him in his Metropole fields of Iraq as well as to Germany. His. guards are lax be- Greece. But meanwhile cause the weakened old fellow another aspect of the Ger- to scale the seven-foot: fence that would find it virtually impossible man drive to the South-surrounds the estate. east also deserves atten- tion.

Yet in March, 1938, this same man was sprightly, fiery, alert Kurt Schuschnigg, Chancellor of Austria. In those days he alone dened the might of adoph Hitler and the German war juggernaut, He was insisting that Austria must remain a free state.

answered by riding

enforcing his own brand of

was forced to listen for hours at

By Kent Hunter

attic was his first wife, divorced, or the countess, was never made

clear.

army

port that he was executed there in. Germany has two "forgotten a "purge" which liquidated some men" whose fortunes ebbed

as 500 German officers who disap- Germany swung into the orbit of proved of the Hitler programme.

war.

von

In

Major Vidkun Quisling, "Arth column" leader of the Nazis their Norway invasion, was once in high favour but recent dis- patches show that in April his "government" in Nazi-occupied. Norway was superseded by an-

of

to

а

In Hitler's rise to power, his i "Brown Shirts" or Storm Troop ers, his "Schutz Staffel" or Black Shirts, and his Gestapo were the Also in the hands of Germany's basis of power, with the old line Under the trade system

dreaded Gestapo, constantly mov- Germany Army, the Reichswehr which Germany has been

ed from one German prison to an- aloof from the Nazi party and all

other, headed by Ingolf Elser efforts, are Captain Richard Henry. other to prevent possible rescue, its works. gradually imposing on.

Field Marshal Werner,

Christensen. In May there was a continental Europe, com- Hitler

Stevens, chief of the European, Blomberg, confidente of General report that Quisling had been as- staff of the British Intelligence von Hindenberg, headed the old sassinated, and a few days later mercial negotiations be- rough-shod over the little nation, Service, and Sigismund Payne line troops.

said Quisling A widower at, 58, he

additional reports tween Germany and its "Anschluss", taking Schuschnigg Best, also of the British Intelli- succumbed to the youthful beauty had been assassinated in Oslo.

gence Service:

of Erika Gruhn, daughter of a Russia's "forgotten' men" take smaller neighbours. have prisoner.

Their names became headlines carpenter. Within a weeks she their places in the ranks of his- At first, Schuschnigg was con- been continuous. Barter fined in a little attic in the Hotel November 9, at Venlo, the Nether- was employed in the War Minis-tory cach year, but it is worthy of

note that in this year's crop lands, when there was a sudden try. has required this. Nego- Metropole, the Gestapo's, Vienna burst of gunfire in a tiny border: In November, 1933, she went on fallen Russian idols is. Marshal

headquarters. tiations have involved re-mockingly dubbed "the Chancel were seen to hurry back across leg, and, was visited by, the Gen- the Russian Army". He was in Inside the attic, tavern. German Gestapo agents a skiing trip to Austria, broke her Klementi Voroshiloff "Father of lations between the Ger- lory" by his captors, Schuschnigg the German border with two pri- eral during convalescence. Janu-high grace until the Russian man currency and the

a time to records of the speeches tenant Klop, of the Netherlands with Hitler and No. 2 Nazi Her- against little Finland failed

soners, while the body of a Lieu-ary 2, 1934, they were married, Army's planned "blitzkrieg" currencies of its neigh-of Adolph Hitler.

Seven months after his confine-stretched out on the pavement. at the Potsdam City Hall.

intelligence service, lay mann Goering signing as witnesses even faintly resemble a lightning bours; they have concern-

stroke. Voroshiluff is now ment 'began, Chancellor Schusch-

The An autopsy showed he had been

"oldline Reichswehr-,"Minister of National Defence," ed the products which nigg's father died, but he was not filled by bullets of German make, twelve generals at once threaten- practically a title without power. Germany would deliver to allowed to leave his little 10 by 9 The Venlo incident occurred the ed to resign if von Blomberg was And Otto Kuusinen, the Com-

room up under the caves of the) these neighbours in re- Metropole,

day after the attempted assassina- not, ousted for his "dragging of munist Finn who urged Stalin to Austria, in spite of

who was tion of Adolf Hitler in a Munich the proud name of the German, invade Finland, and turn for their products, more than half a year of Nazi beer hall where der Fuchrer had army in the dust through his mar-placed in power as, head of the

Anschluss, still spoke of "Schusch-

at Russian puppet Government Nazi ringe to an inferior." and the prices on which nigg the Incorruptible" and Nazi-gone with veterans of the

Von Blomberg resigned and Terijoki, has been deposed. Some such deals would be dom feared the reaction that might party to commemorate the putsch

supreme took his young wife off to Capri, stories have it that he had been

General Werner come from a public view of the which raised Hitler to

von Fritsch, i "liquidated" in Russian fashion, based; they have even in- Chancellor in his changed condi- power in Germany. The Germans

charged that Stevens and Best, monocled, dapper bachelor Chief Other reports are that he has just volved the internal eco- tion.

to an obscure with several anti-Hitler Germans, of Staff of the Reichswehr, suc-been transferred nomic development of After his father's funeral, re- had placed the bomb-in a pillar in ceeded as No. 1 man of the Gerpost in istant Siberia.

ports came that his gaolers reduc-

the beer hall. The explosion man Army but fell into disfavour - The fall frem grace of Maxim some countries which ed Schuschnigg to almost com- missed Hitler by 11 minutes. when he protested that Germany, Litvinoff, former Soviet foreign Germany sought to influ-plete apathy by daily heavy doses

The Germans insisted that Best was not then ready to carry out Commissar, is another Russian of bromides. ence for its own conven,

and Stevens had just crossed the some of Hitler's plans for imme-puzzle. Supplanted in his power- After the outbreak of the war border into the Netherlands when diately recouping the lost German ful foreign office position, he tras ience.

last September Schuschnigg was

taken prisoner,

national fortunes of the World variously been reported as "grave- reported to have been asked each

ly illas having died and that War by military means. '

Only when, a year ago, Hitler living in quiet retirement in Mos-

Certainly the name is took his armies inte Poland, did cow.

·no the full force of his displeasure longer headline, material.

Now, the new German pressures on Yugoslavia and Bulgaria indicate one purpose served by this ex-

edly the Nazi regime, Upon

The British version was

morning to sign. an appeal to the Best and Stevens had not been in. Austrians to support wholelia Germany but had gone to Venlo steadfastly refusing each morning, to meet other agents reporting on he was subjected to a daily beat- ing, the reports said: An elabor- tension of military poweration of this story was that the Bulgaria has just agreed Chancellor, who has a fine sense to a new fixed relation be clothing,

of modesty, was deprived of all tween German and Bul- garian currency.

to German power.

There are reports that Schusch- nigg was held in a concentration camp, and others that he wus

His removal from the Metropole to Nordlingen has caused specu- lation that the Nazis now consider What this part of Eu-him no longer capable of inspiring rope is seeing to-day is organising. Austrian resistance simply an intensification of the methods which Germany has pursued for some years to gain power do peers of the realm. And in Europe: Before the most of them are outbreak of war the Nazis "brought up" in much the used diplomatic pressure same way as other people: to enforce their terms, for they do not imbibe a trade. The present double dose of original sin | method is more frankly by having the milk in brutal; but it is not new. their feeding bottles, mix- It is part of that same added with printer's ink. conception of "Lebens-Thereafter many of them raum which has brought go to normal schools in Europe to its present state the ordinary way, they of chaos.

are not automatically drafted to Borstal: Some

J

POWER OF THE PRESS of them even do quite well

at the universities. Wher That was a curious con- they do get into journal- fession that Lord Addison, ism some of them may made in the House of from time to time be call- Lords last week when he ed on to approach private remarked "I am always and public affairs in a afraid of newspaper peo- way that may not meet ple because they give me with many people's "ap- the creepy feeling that proval or even with they have been brought their own. But as most up in a world of which I of the proprietors of that know next to nothing" type of newspaper find But something must be their way to the House of allowed for the type of Lords, perhaps it was to newspaper people; they them that Lord Addison's vary as much in their confession of alarm functions and outlook as should have been made,

GR=R-

GIBRAL

HELLO FRANCO, THIS IS BERLİN WE DECIDED TO GIVE YOU

GIBRALTAR

TH-TH-THANKS THAT'S SWELL

OF YOU

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